Minister for Regional Australia
Simon Crean
has likened Labor’s struggles in the polls to a football team with a long season of hard matches ahead, but says the party can still win the election.

“We’re not at the grand final yet, there’s a whole lot of game that’s got to be played between now and then," Mr Crean said.

“I think we’ve got to aspire to win all over the ground, so to speak, and that’s why so much effort is being put into so many different agendas."

Mr Crean used the football analogy when he was quizzed about the results of polling while attending the opening of a $1.9 million sports and community hub at the North Melbourne Football Club on Tuesday.

He conceded the latest Newspoll survey, showing Labor's primary vote at 31 per cent and the Coalition's at 47 per cent, was a wake-up call for the government, adding that the party needed to be brave ahead of the September 14 vote.

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“You can’t win with a 31 per cent primary vote," he said. “We wont win unless we’re bold, unless we’re courageous. But that’s not where we expect to be in September."

‘I’m sure our position will improve’

Mr Crean also said leadership speculation was contributing to poor polling results.

“If you look at those polls you can see that our downturn commenced at the point in which we started speculating again internally about who the leader should be," he said, adding that he hoped the party’s position would change by August.

“So ask me in six months time, I hope our position, in fact I’m sure our position will improve and we are doing everything we can to ensure it does," Mr Crean said.

‘’Five days in Rooty Hill will not be enough, let me assure you,’’ Mr Richardson told Sky News on Tuesday.

Coalition frontbencher George Brandis had a similar comment. “I hope she campaigns in a lot more marginal seats, because she happens to be the most unpopular politician in Australia,’’ he told Sky News.

There are 10 Labor-held seats deemed to be at risk for the party in western Sydney, along with another six elsewhere in NSW.

Tuesday’s poll showed that voter satisfaction with the Prime Minister has dived to its lowest level since August last year. And Mr Abbott now has a clear lead over Julia Gillard as preferred prime minister for the first time since last July.

Abbott’s carbon claims hurting Labor: Greens

The Greens have moved to distance themselves from the major parties after the poll.

Greens Leader Christine Milne said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has damaged Labor’s support by travelling around the country making “wild claims" about carbon pricing.

The minor party’s schools spokeswoman Penny Wright said the Newspoll showing Labor’s primary vote at a seven-month low reflected the community’s disappointment with the government, especially over the mining tax.

The split from Labor appears to have been beneficial for the Greens, with the Newspoll showing the party’s primary vote has risen from 9 per cent to 11 per cent.

But Trade Minister
Craig Emerson
brushed off the government’s poor showing in the poll.

He told ABC television the visit would allow Ms Gillard to present Labor’s solutions for issues of concern to those living in Sydney’s sprawling west, including jobs, law and order and commuting times.

“People have to spend a lot of time in traffic travelling outside the region for jobs and what we’re doing through the innovation statement is ensuring we give our manufacturing jobs the best possible chance in the Asian century," he said.

“[Manufacturing] is burdened by a high Australian dollar, but we will open up industrial precincts and we want to talk to the people of western Sydney about those opportunities."

In a finding sure to add to Ms Gillard’s woes, 24 per cent of people surveyed for the Newspoll said they would be more likely to vote for Labor if Kevin Rudd were in charge. But 62 per cent said a leadership change would make no difference at all.